Go With The Flow

I am releasing this post that I wrote a few weeks ago as I thought the computer had lost it and the post I am soon to relate to refers to this post and the way in a few short weeks I have changed my mind to a degree due to various occurrences — Mark

How did I ever end up wrapped up in Adventure Path’s? Honestly, I am running three of them at the moment and I find myself much more satisfied running adventures where I have done the designing and can just wing it with the players when they go off the cuff (as they always do). I have nothing against the Adventure Path style or genre, I just do not think that it is a great fit for me, that is all.

Cover of Dungeon World – a great story telling take on the Fantasy Genre

I really like the Dungeon World motto of play to learn, where you run a game that is free flowing and malleable. The GM prepares the bones of the adventure and then just lets the players riff off the bones and rolls with the momentum. I am not saying that Dungeon World is the best game for me, nor the only game that you can do this with. In fact, I am running the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path with twelve enthusiastic new players.

The reason I came to this realisation is that yesterday I prepared for the game. Because there are so many of them it has been difficult to balance the experience and they are not yet ready for the challenges immediately ahead of them for that reason. So, of course, I did what any good GM would do and created a side adventure.

We started the run through of it last night and it was brilliant. I had a lot of fun running the little adventure and learning what the story was as we went through it. I got to use books that I love like Green Ronin’s Advanced Bestiary to create a surprising encounter (that killed a player) by combining a simple every day Octopus with a Muck creature template and sit it in a submerged room. These things were just bare bones on the page and they came to life with the player’s and my interactions. We flowed through several chambers of the desecrated hidden temple of Aroden and had a really good time.

I do know that I took on Adventure Path’s because much of the work was done for me. But in reality I have found the reading of the information can take up a heap of time and then there is (in some adventure paths) a re-engineering of effects and plot lines to get characters on track when they eventually do nothing that was expected of them. So in reality are these books saving me time? I would really like to experiment a little with it and see what happens.

There you are, just a bit of musing today. Are the modules I have been using actually limiting my time and enjoyment. i may have a little play and let you know soon.